There's no shortage of Reddit applications for Android on the Play Store, most of which are excellent in terms of design and functionality and cater to different types of Reddit users. But no matter how many third-party clients are available, there's always a special place for official apps, ones that come straight from the site/service/network and provide a home-brew perspective on what the experience should be like on mobile.

Reddit has been hard at work improving its mobile presence, first with a new beta mobile site and second with an official Android app which was leaked a couple of months ago and is now finally official. The released app looks a lot like the beta that Jacob looked at back in January, but it probably has less bugs and a more consistent experience.

The app should allow you to browse Reddit, search and view and subscribe to subreddits, read threaded comments, and post your own images, links, stories, comments, and more. There's also a customizable aspect with different themes (the night theme is more grey than black) and views (compact or card). And finally, the Inbox is where you'll see messages sent to you, mentions of your username, and replies to your posts and comments.

As an added perk, Reddit is offering three months of Reddit gold to users who download the app and login during this launch week. So even if you're dead set on a different Reddit client on Android, you might want to grab this one and check it out too. There's shiny gold to be had and that definitely deserves an upvote.

We're available today in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally, but we're committed to getting it out everywhere. In the meantime you can continue to use our mobile optimized website and any of our awesome 3rd party clients.

Gregory

What exactly does it require besides checking a checkbox? The fact that I live in Russia doesn't imply that I require a Russian translation or something... I even have English as system language on my primary phone.

I came across a screenshot of such reviews, complete with the replies from the developer saying something like "иди на х*й". And I can't blame the developer, I would have done the same thing if I had a popular app intended to be used internationally.

Usually I keep Windows, Android or whatever OS in English, although i'm from a non-English-speaking country. The same with apps. And I have a hunch I'm not the only one. Not every app needs to be localized. It's a plus, for sure, for certain users, but not something that breaks the experience.

Karel

This 100x

It helps so much with troubleshooting stuff

Swami

Official answer from Reddit Announcements Mod..

We're available today in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally, but we're committed to getting it out everywhere. In the meantime you can continue to use our mobile optimized website and any of our awesome 3rd party clients.

Oletros

"Launching apps in other countries requires a little bit more diligence than just making a website available globally"

Bullshit

George

so what's your take on why they're not doing it if it's so easy?

Oletros

I don't know why the have not released in other countries, perhaps because they have not localized it, perhaps because they want to do an staged rollout.

But what is clear is that the excuse they have give us is bullshit.

George

how can you call something BS without even knowing what the underlying reason is? lol

Oletros

I think you have to re read the posts because it seems that you have not understood them.

George

I'm not a dev, so I don't know what they have to do in order to release it globally. Shit gets released in different countries at different times all the time, why don't you move your ass to Australia so you get everything 1st instead of crying about an app that just got released today and now you have to wait a few hours?

Oletros

Are you joking, trolling or what?

George

you're the troll that is crying about why an app is region locked and is QUESTIONING the devs on why they didn't release it to you. A friggin app!!! go get a life or STFU

Apifax

Probably because they don't wanna give away 3 months gold to too many people. Luckily I have android so I can just force install the .apk and say a big FU to reddit.

I am from Hungary. But I am seriously considering to region lock my apps to the English speaking part of the world too. Even though my app is translated into 10 languages, 85% of the income still comes from US + Canada + UK + Australia.

The extra work involved with localization, customer service and documentation is not in ratio with the gains.

Add to this how much more hostile the users from other countries are, especially if the app is not yet translated to their languages (or not translated at the quality they demand). 97% of the 1-star ratings come from countries other than English speaking countries.

Add to this piracy. 80% of south-american and 90% of asian / east-european users use pirated versions of my apps. I can tell from the video views. At least they cannot 1-star the app, if it is not downloaded from the Play store. But I see little incentive to translate so it can be more easily pirated...

Bluewall

If you region lock it, prepare to have even more people who pirate it.

Yes, that's in the balance. But with piracy already at 80-90%, there isn't that much to lose. A developers need to consider what to spend their time with. They might be better off if they can add features or develop more apps instead of localization.

Hrishikesh Bisen

But it is free..

René Simonsen

Are these real numbers? 97% of the one-star ratings - is that a number pulled out of a magic hat, or for real? It would also be interesting to know how many of these 1-star reviews there are compared to the total number of reviews.

Also, how does translating the app make it more easily pirated?

Another thing. I hate it when apps are translated to my language. That's why I keep my phone in English.

Groosha

By the way (not only for you but to everyone who is interested): AppSettings module for Xposed Framework allows apps to force use specific language. Used it some times when the translation was awful.

René Simonsen

Yeah I use it too. But actually in the opposite case. Since I have my phone in english, everything is english. But I do want Google Maps in my native language, since street pronunciation is not very good with english TTS

Groosha

If Google maps supports your language, you can force app to use it. I've just checked it myself: my phone language is Russian and I managed to force use default Android browser (sorry, I don't have GMaps installed) in Deutsch.

Oletros

And which is that app?

Rami

love the free gold...

Ankit Gupta

So now, when are we getting an app for AP on the ▶ store?

Oletros

"As an added perk, Reddit is offering three months of Reddit gold to users who download the app and login during this launch week."

Launch wek in USA, UK, Australian And Canada. People from the rest of the world can't download the app and won't receive any gold.

Thanks Reddit for nothing

Bluewall

Yeah that's exactly what I thought. We have to wait for APK Mirror to deliver ! Wake up Artem ! :D

This app is kinda bad compared to Reddit is Fun. But I won't complain about 3 months of free gold

ADofCLE

Actually a really nicely done app.

hackRme

Not compatible with Moto G 2nd gen?

vershkaukas

so they offer 3 months of free gold accounts to early adopters but then they restrict who can download the app? You'd think the reason to offer free upgrades was to attract more people into using the app, then they pull this off. Seems counter productive.

Carlos Rodríguez

Ugh, the night mode is really unfinished. I get a lot of dark texts on dark backgrounds, looks ugly AF.

Gustash

Glad to see an official take on the app side. But, for now, I'm gonna stick with Reddit is Fun. It's much quicker and has a lot more features. I'm sure the official app will catch up eventually but, until then, RiF is my daily driver :)

Leandro Brandão

Tried it and not even close as relay.
I prefer official apps but in this case i will stick to the third party one.

Hawkeye2103

Alien Blue Pro users on iOS just got 4 years of gold since the app got pulled in favor of the new one. Meanwhile Android users get only 3 months. I get it that gold is gold, but am I the only one that feels a little skimped that Apple users just got $120 worth of gold for basically free and we only got a few months of it?

digiblur

Writing is on the wall now.... buh bye public API, it was nice knowing you.

illstplaya .

This app is terrible. It constantly crashes and most of the time I'm not even able to open it up because it crashes.

Tong Lin

Anyone has a problem with the app "back" button? it seems not working and I have to use the device back button instead.

Chrisdroid

Installed it, tested it, loved the UI, but going back to "Reddit is fun" app cause I can save pics and .gif files with RIF, something I can't do with the official app.

David

Reddit is BANNED in Indonesia - so it doesn't matter if we can't get it here.